photo by Wes Sherwin

Wara from the NBHD (NeighBorHooD) is a long-time Atlanta residing, BK-born rapper. He’s the face of Playin Four Keeps, an LLC that he controls with his close team of creative advisers and contributors. Together, they’re hard at work collecting sounds, initiatives, and performances opportunities to grow as a culture and brand. This brand is neither a solicitation nor the misplaced analogy that we find in many of the crews built around rap these days. Instead, PFK as a brand is an exploration of their work together, accumulating substance as Wara poises himself for his next major release, Kidnapped.

Here, you’ll read the stories of Wara’s efforts to remove some of the opacity of his artistic presence. One of his most recurring battles is with the idea of musical quality being affected by the need for quantity (in order to stay relevant). This pushes him to remain tasked and active not only in order to prolong his career, but to use his career as a way to accrue the most from what life has to offer.

Peep game.

RESPECT : What’ve you been up to since the second version of The Ill Street Blues dropped?

Wara : Well, we hit the road, we actually started to do way more shows, and I started to develop a bigger fan-base. You know, being that we dropped in February, a lot of times, people forget by the next December. I’ve heard of more people waiting on my music, even at this point in the year. We’ve gone through so many transitions, though, lately. To be honest, I’m the type of artist who doesn’t like to revamp shit, I just wanna keep it movin in the same direction. If I keep doin my work, and keep evolving, I think people are gonna have to go back and hear what I sounded like at the beginning. Everything’s been positive, and as far as my life, not much has changed. Just the same bullshit. Every day is pretty repetitive. Back and forth to the studio, every day, just really trying to figure out what our next move is gonna look like.

What’re some of the options you’re weighing?

We’re planning a tour for the next album, but in my mind, 2013 was my coming out party. Now, I want 2014 to be a year where I make a bigger impact with my music. As I’m putting out music, I force myself to grow. That’s really it. I need to make sure that I’m focusing on looking back at things to change anything in my sound. Like every time I put music out, I put out quality music. But I go back and look to mistakes I may have made. Even in terms of the politics of releasing music, I find some mistakes. When a new video comes out, we always feel like we could’ve done so many little things to improve exposure and whatnot. Not necessarily that you HAVE to learn from your mistakes, but you have to figure out what you DIDN’T do. That’s what counts sometimes.

So what’s been your biggest realization so far?

I feel like I have this two-week cycle thing. I might put out a song Monday, and it goes crazy that week, but then the next week it just dies down. People’s attention spans are even shorter than that, sometimes just like three days, and there are so many things that I can do to keep my music pushing forward, and in the front of people’s minds. So to keep my relevance, I’m gonna have to keep my shit coming. But people go out of their way to support my music. People are happy with the output so far, and I like that they anticipate the next release.

And what about the next project. What’s the name?

Kidnapped.

What other details can you give us?

It’s probably gonna have like 13 songs on it, pretty standard. I’ve done a bunch of recording for it already, but I need to go back over some of the production. When it comes down to release time, I wanna have a lot to choose from. And since I had so much to get out, my first tape was 17 tracks. But I wanna make this album way more tight. Like I wanna get my message across without saying so much. This one has to be way more musical. The content is gonna be there. I’m confident about my content, but I just want my production to be on point.

When we last spoke you said that you actually started producing yourself. Have you put anything out yet that’s been produced by you?

Not yet. I only started during the process of Ill Street Blues. But I wasn’t ready yet. I was lowkey studying this whole year. A lot of the production is gonna be from me, but the live instruments in the background, I’ll have to bring people in.

Do you wanna try to describe your production so far, or do you wanna wait for it to drop first?

I would say that my production is really gritty, but it’s more cinematic than that. I tried to study Neptunes and RZA recently, so that’s how I try to frame my production. I like the beautiful chords in the Neptunes’ work, and how colorful the beats are, and how RZA perfected that gritty, raw typa shit. I would say that’s where I want it to come from. It’s not an exact sound, but it’s cohesive. I aim for that, but sometimes other things come out.

You also recently said that you were tired of rap. Why is that, and why do you even continue if that’s true?

I have those points in time where I feel like there’s nothing else I can do for the rap game to make it different and fun again. Nowadays everyone’s a rapper. Back in the day, if you went up to someone, and they told you they were a rapper, that was some real shit. That was a skill or a talent. I’m not gonna say it’s oversaturated, because who am I to say that?… Since I guess everyone has the chance to rap. But I feel like I got tired of rap when I started to characterize my work, because I don’t like lyin’ about my life.

But my life has been repetitive! Since the last album, I’m still in the same hood, doin’ the same things, but I don’t wanna talk about that no more. My mind moves faster than I naturally do, and I gotta make sure that I stay focused and close to reality. It’s not really fun, you know? I love the music so much, but rap has become boring to me, since there was nothing new for me to talk about. I wanna get out there and tour and play shows and have more experiences to feed my creativity. But I’ve been around niggas that made it. I been around niggas that went in and they have the best job in the world now. But I need to figure out what they did to get where they’re at. I think I have talent, I just need to make the right moves to get myself headed in the right direction. I’m at the level where I should be, but I’ve felt like that for too long.

photo by Wes Sherman

So tell us about some of the shows you’ve done so far.

I wanna thank J Dirt for what happened with CMJ and the Fader Fort. He definitely helped me get that extra leg through the door. Making it and killin it was so surreal. Because two days before, my pops told me he was about to get deported, and he needed help with some money. He’s from Jamaica, and he hadn’t paid his fees or whatever. And my mom didn’t have money to pay the rent. And I’m up in New York broke as fuck, and I was about to play the show of my life, but everything at home was blowing up. But I new I couldn’t lose my head, feelme? My focus had to be on point. And we was up in SOB’s, and I was so mad bruh! I sat down on the bench, and had to shed a fuckin tear the night before what felt like my big shot. I’m on my high horse, and when I get back to Atlanta, it’s back to the same shit. I got no time to waste now. If I’m not gettin a better show every time I perform, and if I’m not gettin to a point where I can sell records, then by the times I’m 25, it’ll be time to take another avenue here. I’m not the type to wait around and wait for it to happen like that. I don’t have to do those hole in the wall shows no more, right now I’m up in better venues. But when I get a budget, people are gonna love the shows that much more. I’m mad that the moment at CMJ died out.

The post Welcome to the Neighborhood: An Interview with Wara appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

It’s been over a year since Dijon SAMO (FKA LaVi$h) released an official album. And today, we present to you his breakout work Life, As We Know It [LAWKI, for short]. We$t Coa$t born and bred, the Nouveau Riche Records (URNR.TV) representative began working on LAWKI in 2011. For two years, SAMO took the time needed and the space required for his creativity to reach new heights; he brought in his production team, ForeverToday, (primarily working with Sa’eed) to create the unique sounds that effervesce throughout the album. And as you’ll discover, a vast majoroty of the album is 100% original. Only “REM” (produced by Sa’eed) and “Vices” (NAEM) sample Toro Y Moi, a favorite of both SAMO & Sa’eed. SAMO has matured over the last two years, and it shimmers throughout the album. He’s also built quite the catalogue, including work with Rome Fortune (soon to be released), Western Tink, Buddy of i AM OTHER, Casey Veggies, Pyramid Vritra, LeftHandMitch, and Ceej of Two9.

The album was originally delayed after the Polaroid Co. threatened to sue SAMO for originally titling the album Polaroid (a reference to SAMO’s desire to capture the good and bad times that characterized his life). So he did what any self-respecting (and attorney-lacking) artist would do : he scrapped that whole project, changed his name from LaVi$h to Dijon SAMO, moved to New York, and renamed the album to LAWKI (but Fuck the Polaroid Co. was probably an alternate title). The final album was recorded in New York, Texas, and LA, charting his physical and artistic moves around the country. SAMO’s focus was to build his fan base nationwide, as he’s begun picking up speed in his hometown of Los Angeles, Texas (where he toured every major city) and New York City (headlining shows at SOB’s with Shabazz Palaces, and Santos Party House with Ree$e, Western Tink, and Sam RUBIK). And he’s not just courting the rap world. SAMO has been busy lately collaborating on a limited release of merch with URNR.TV, preparing the album’s visuals, and he recently shot a commercial for Pure Fix Cycles out in LA.

back cover

This album is SAMO’s most precious body of work, keeping his voice almost stubbornly alone on a majority of the tracks. Only NAEM, Buddy, and Niko G4 show their voices on this album. Even the production comes from close to home: 3rd Kingdom, Dijon SAMO (he included some self-produced tracks), ForeverToday (his production team), Chuck Wun (of FT), and Sa’eed (of FT) are the only producers on the 13-track album. Sa’eed, a longtime collaborator of SAMO’s, is also a Nouveau Riche favorite. His galactic tonalities and aerated pitches have projected him into a brand of music that few can simultaneously control and allow to auto-define. This mollifying sound is the basis for much of the album, targeting each track with whispers of his influence.

While SAMO’s attempt at garnering a wide audience are endearing, what’s most admirable about this project is its distinctly-relaxed, West Coast atmosphere. Yet there’s no hyphy nods, #BASED nuances, or three-wheel lick-hittin. SAMO is able to siphon the aura of his own particular experience(s) into this album, not rely on pre-existing aesthetics. He explores a host of sounds to capture and explore the aura of his Left Coastal perspective. His roots shine through each and every note on LAWKI. Whether he’s referring to his time in Atlanta’s Zone 6 [Z6ne], Brooklyn Akhis, or the Texas heat, he carries the distinctly-spreading sounds of his dear West Coast. His keen ear for easily-reflected sounds resonates throughout, elevating and dispersing his words directly into the essence of his listeners.

And through this atmosphere, he creates a symbiosis between his sounds : each “region” of rap carries its own aesthetics to those surrounding, amplifying each one’s influence on the other. His trap-hungry snares are accompanied by synth elevations: ATL meets the spirituality of the Pacific sun; his occasional boom-bap currents flow over a bed of hushed trumpets; NYC clobbers into the repose of a coastline cruise; his chopped/slurred drum pangs regain their calm from tamed keys: Screwston, TX slows to the graying skies of the misty Bay area. No matter where life takes SAMO (or, more accurately, where he directs his life), he has no choice but to nod to the sounds of his guarded core. LAWKI is one of the best examples of an author ignoring the perception that one must “know their audience.”

He isn’t speaking to anyone, for anyone, or under the authority of anyone. LAWKI is an unadulterated body of work. SAMO speaks from his own experiences, and projects himself into his own metrics of a successful life. Lending itself to no trend in particular, LAWKI presents a pure individual. Focused, thoughtful, and adventurous, the album reads like a suggestive manifesto. There are no messages or demands made, only an honest exploration of the person SAMO has grown to be. Discover him below.

Listen and buy the album on Bandcamp below.

or stream on SAMO‘s Soundcloud.

The post ALBUM PREMIERE : DIJON SAMO – LIFE AS WE KNOW IT (LAWKI) appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.